


lab partners

by mayor_crumblepot



Series: thompkean tumblr fills [2]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, and what better person to impose that on than barbara, subtle goth lee, subtle nerd barbara, what can i say? i love it when lee gets smooth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayor_crumblepot/pseuds/mayor_crumblepot
Summary: prompt:our teachers keep pairing us together even though we’re polar opposites, but i can’t deny that you’re really cute





	lab partners

Barbara Kean is a know-it-all, and it’s infuriating. 

Somehow, she manages to touch up her eyeshadow and explain Avogadro’s constant to her useless lab partner du jour at the same time. She can’t keep a lab partner, and she’s practically cycled through the whole class, except for Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins. That’s because they’ve been the peak power couple since their freshman year, and  _of course_  they sit together in every class they share.

That is, until about a month ago. 

Lee has managed to win a seat to herself in the back of the room, intimidating people with her new haircut and her intense eye makeup and her surprisingly high grades. (Jim, on the other hand, has returned to Harvey Bullock’s side with a wounded ego. Harvey will listen to him complain, struggling to balance chemical equations while hearing Jim lament his every personal flaw.) 

It isn’t until a pairs assignment comes up that Lee gets thrust back into her front row lifestyle, pointed to the seat beside Barbara by their teacher who will  _not_  take no for an answer. Neither of them speak, far too uncomfortable with this new development. 

This continues to happen. Once every two or three weeks, the teacher snaps her fingers at Lee and points to the empty seat next to Barbara, and she walks up with little hesitation. Barbara is starting to lose her resolve— Lee always smells like starlight jasmine and oranges, fresh and sweet even though her entire look lacks color. Sometimes she goes for a bold, red lipstick, and Barbara thinks she might die. 

Lee never notices Barbara’s struggle, though, not until she nearly drops a beaker full of caustic acid onto the table because she was too busy watching Lee tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. She’s wearing these long earrings, elegant chains that dangle all the way down to her collarbone, and holy  _shit_. 

“I thought you were smart,” Lee snips, looking from her lab report to see the ghosting of red over Barbara’s pasty cheeks, the shiver going through her hand.  _Huh._  

“Usually, I am.” Barbara is indignant, nose in the air. When Lee takes the beaker from her, brushing fingertips for a fraction of a second, it all falls apart. 

“Oh, you get defensive when you fuck up,” she laughs, pouring the acid into the graduated cylinder on their table, “that’s cute.” What’s worse? She means it. 

* * *

The next day, Lee sits herself down in the seat next to Barbara, notebooks and pens all set out in front of herself when class starts. Barbara is late because she spends the entire passing period trying to figure out why the fuck Lee is in the seat next to hers. (Is there an assignment due? She doesn’t miss assignments. Is there a lab today, too?  _Fuck_.) 

It turns out, after Barbara spends the whole class missing lecture notes to stare at Lee and figure  _something_  out, it’s because she wants to. “I like you,” she says, matter of fact, “and I can see a lot better up here. I don’t need my glasses.” 

Glasses? 

Barbara spends the rest of the week thinking about Lee in glasses, wondering why she’s never seen them, and wondering just how absolutely  _precious_  that sight must be. 

She finds out in their next lab, when Lee has to put her glasses on to read the tiny script on the vials they’re using. Barbara is speechless, obviously staring. 

“What is it?” Lee asks her, scrunching her nose to keep the glasses from falling off of her face, “Is there something wrong?” 

“You’re really cute—” it’s so hard to stop once she’s started, and Barbara finds herself thinking of ways to choke herself without it being too obvious, “I— with the glasses, and um— you know,  _normally_  I’m better at this.” 

“Are you?” 

“ _Yes_ ,” she whines, “normally I’m better at  _everything_! But now you’re here and suddenly I’m a fucking moron.”

“Language!” The teacher gestures vaguely in the direction of their desk, ears perfectly in tune for what he isn’t supposed to hear. Barbara doesn’t apologize, but she lets out an exhausted puff of air. 

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,” Lee tells her, reaffixing her glasses. “And you can take me out, some time. We can study, if that makes it easier on you.” 

“Easier?”

“You look like you might melt,” she giggles, and eventually Barbara lets herself laugh, too. Maybe this can work. 

* * *

It takes four dates that masquerade as study sessions, one of which happens in Barbara’s pastel pink bedroom, walls covered in various prints of modern art alongside academic track plans. She has a cork board with pictures of herself with her friends, and also a printout of Phineas Gage’s x-ray. 

Lee kisses Barbara on her bed, dropping a textbook to the floor and losing three of her color coordinated highlighters in the fuzzy rug. Speechless, and maybe a little breathless, Barbara just hooks her arms around Lee’s shoulders, threads her fingers up past the shaved hair at the base of her skull, into the obnoxiously straight strands that frame Lee’s face. “You know, normally,” Barbara says, speaking against Lee’s lips and  _definitely_  smearing her lipstick, “I’m—”

“Better at this?” 

“No,” she rolls her eyes, pouting so hard that her bottom lip touches Lee’s, “I’m just not usually on my back.”

“Is that a problem?” And Lee means it, ready to back up and release Barbara from the cage that her bony arms have imposed upon her.

“It’s not,” Barbara pulls Lee back down, slotting their noses next to one another and pressing their foreheads together, “not at all. It’s so  _not_  a problem.”

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr! i'm [ mayor-crumblepot ](https://mayor-crumblepot.tumblr.com)


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